Wandering Words: Paint day

Last weekend was the culmination of the last two months' carnavales celebrations, with the biggest party in all Peru taking place in my regional capital of Cajamarca. The event brought 60+ Peace Corps volunteers from around the country up to the mountains to take part in the festivities, so we had a fun-filled weekend with all the visitors. The nights were spent in the plaza, which was packed to the gills with Peruvians gathered in small circles of friends and neighbors. Each circle had its own drum, its own drinks, and its own singing and dancing going on. Since everybody likes a gringo, we had no problem joining in the fun, dancing huayno until the wee hours of the morning.

Crowds of revelers in the plaza

Beautiful painted masks decorated the buildings around the plaza

The weekend's biggest event, however, was Saturday's paint day, where the whole city roams the streets squirting/dumping/throwing/smearing paint on anyone and everyone. So on Friday, we prepared ourselves for battle by purchasing squirt guns, buckets, and paint. Brad and me spent some time sharpening our aim by squirting water down at passersby from the hostel balcony - throwing water is fair game on any day of carnaval, not just paint Saturday.

Then the big day finally arrived. After donning our paint gear (a.k.a. clothes I will never wear again), we grabbed our ammo and headed into the mayhem. I ended up with a group of mostly cajamarquino PC volunteers, and we walked a big loop around the city in the thick of the paint crowds - it was pure craziness! Within ten minutes I was completely covered in thirty different colors of paint, and had squirted so many people that I had to reload my paint gun. It was possibly the most fun day I have had in Peru so far, and I already can't wait for next year. Unfortunately I took zero pictures during the paint fight, since I didn't quite fancy owning a nonfunctional paint-covered camera at the end of the day, but here's one another volunteer took, and a few of the aftermath: